Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh

该项目建立了一个教育网络测试平台，以测试对匹兹堡公立学校教学环境的重大变化的猜测，通过安装电子数据网络，最终将向学区的所有学生和教师开放。所提出的网络在分布式架构和分布式管理结构上是新颖的。教师和学生将使用网络访问信息和教室外的人。这些新资源将被纳入课程改革工作，网络将被用作制定、执行、评价和传播新课程组成部分的工具。该项目将开发一套基于网络的活动，并提供一个框架，在这个框架中，这些活动可以在整个当地学校系统中实施，进行测试、评估，并提供给全国其他学区。该项目还建立机制，使匹兹堡公立学校网络技术的使用和维护制度化。为匹兹堡公立学校开发的模型将适用于其他城市学校系统，项目过程中产生的材料将通过地区互联网连接立即提供给其他学区使用。因此，该项目测试了广域网在全国K-12社区的教育效用，并将提供有关成本和促进效益的基本因素的经验数据。该项目是学区、匹兹堡大学和匹兹堡超级计算中心的共同努力，匹兹堡超级计算中心本身是由匹兹堡大学、卡内基梅隆大学和西屋电气公司联合成立的。拟议的活动将建立包括这些团体和当地社区许多其他团体在内的联盟。在学区内，该项目涉及学生、教师、教学专家、管理人员和匹兹堡教师联合会的合作活动。所提议的网络是使这些团体能够有效和顺利地合作的关键因素。这也是匹兹堡公立学校以及全国其他学区教育结构和质量发生重大变化的关键。全面实施拟议的网络估计需要五年时间才能完成。目前的提议将资助一个较大项目的两年试验阶段。这个试点阶段将试图回答匹兹堡-或任何其他考虑发展广泛计算机网络的学区-在全面实施之前应该了解的所有问题。接下来的三年实施阶段的资金将从国家科学基金会项目和其他联邦机构和私人基金会管理的项目中寻求。

This project establishes an educational networking testbed to test conjectures about major changes in the teaching environment of the Pittsburgh Public Schools made possible through the installation of an electronic data network that will ultimately be available to all students and teachers in the school district. The proposed network will be novel in its distributed architecture and distributed administrative structure. Teachers and students will use the network to access information and people outside of their classrooms. These new resources will be incorporated into curriculum, reform efforts, and the network will be used as a tool for the development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of new curriculum components. The project will develop a set of network-based activities and provide a framework in which such activities can be implemented throughout the local school system, tested, evaluated and made available to other school districts around the nation. The project also establishes mechanisms to institutionalize the use and maintenance of network technology in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The model that will be developed for the Pittsburgh Public Schools will be applicable to other urban school systems, and materials generated in the course of the project will be immediately available for the use of other school districts via district's connection the internet. The project thus tests the educational utility of wide area networks for the national K-12 community and will provide empirical date on costs and essential factors contributing to effectiveness. The project is a joint effort of the school district, the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, which itself was jointly founded by the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The proposed activities will build coalitions involving these groups and many others across the local community. Within the school district the project involves cooperative activities which include students, teachers, instructional specialists, administrators and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. The proposed network is the key element which will allow these groups to work together efficiently and smoothly. It is also the key to significant changes in the structure and quality of education in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and, by extension, in other school districts across the country. Full implementation of the proposed network will require an estimated five years to complete. The present proposal will fund a two-year pilot phase of the larger project. This pilot phase will attempt to answer all those questions which Pittsburgh - or any other school district contemplating the development of an extensive computer network - should understand before proceeding to a full-scale implementation. Funding for the three-year implementation phase which follows will be sought from a combination of NSF programs and programs managed by other federal agencies and private foundations.